[Dave at Pelican Parts]

You can also use a magnet to fish the follower out.

I replied to this one on the Rennlist and/or E-groups list, but I figure I might as well chime in here.

A dropped valve seat can be very loud. 1/4" of valve clearance sounds kind of like "THWACK!" over and over. You get 1/4" of clearance when the valve seat pops out and holds the valve open. It's very obvious when you pull the valve cover and look--one valve stem is definitely out of line with the others.

A dropped valve seat can also be very quiet. I had one that popped out and fell back in again, quite a number of times. It was in place, but didn't seal on the valve for squat. A compression test finally told me what was going on. (The sound from cranking the starter got me to actually do the compression test. RR-RR-RR--RR-RR-RR- One dead cylinder.) I checked the valve adjustment, and found it to be in spec.

Zero compression with the valves in spec means you have a problem inside the motor. I pulled the heads and looked. One of the intake valves (the one on the dead cylinder) had little "divots" around the valve seat. I could also see light around the valve. Yup, another dropped seat...

--DD